The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1887-09-01
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Heavenly Existence Not One
of Idleness.

The Heavenly Existence Not One
of Idleness.
Occupations as Many and Varied in the
Celestial World as Upon the Earth
"A Beautiful Word Picture
Of the Future.
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage took for the
subject of his third sermon at The Hamp-
tons the "Employments Of Heaven" his
text being:
Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in
the fourth month. in the fifth day of the month,
as was among the captivess by the river OF
Chebar, that the Heavens were opened.-Eze-
kiel l., l.
Ezekiel, with others, had been ex-
patriated, and while in foreign slavery
was standing on the banks of the royal
canal which he and other serfs had been
condemned to dig by the order of Nebu-
chadnezzar-thisr royal canal, in the text
called the river OF Chebar; the illustrious
exile had visions of Heaven. Indeed, it is
almost always so that the brightest visions
of Heaven come not to those who are on
mountain top Of prosperity, but to some
John on desolate Patmos, or to some Paul
in Mamertime dungeon, or to some Ezekiel
standing on the banks of ditch he had
been compelled to dig-yea, to the weary,
to the feart- broken, to those whom sorrow
has banished.
The text Is very particular to give us the
exact time of the vision. 1t was in the
thirtieth year, and in the fourth month,
and in the fifth day Of the month. So you
have had visions Of earth you shall
never forget. You remember the
year, you remember the month,
you remember the day, you remember the
hour. Why may not we have some such
vision this morning, and it be in the sixth
month and in the fourth day of the month.
The question is often silently asked
though perhaps never audibly propounded:
"What are our departed Christian friends
doing now?" The question is more easily
answered than you perhaps might suppose.
Though there has come no recent intelli-
gence from the heavenly city, and we seem
dependent upon the story of eighteen cen.
ssries ago, still / think we may from
strongest differences decide what are the
present occupations of our transferred
kinsfolk.
After God has made nature he never
eradicates the chief characteristics of its
temperament. You never knew a man
phlegmatic in temperament to become
sanguine in temperament. You never
knew man sanguine in temperament to
become phlegmatic in temperament. Con-
version plants new principles in the soul,
but Paul and John are just as different
from each other after conversion as they
were different from each other before con.
version. If conversion does not eradicate
the prominent characteristics of the tenn
permanent neither will death eradicate
them.
You have, then, only by sum in sub
traction and sum in addition to decide
what are the employments of your de.
parted friends in the better world. You
are to subtract from them all earthly
grossness and add all earthly goodness
and then you are to come to the conclusion
that they are doing now in Heaven what
in their best moments they did on earth
The reason that so many people never start
for Heaven is because they could not stand
it II they got there if it should turn out tc
be the rigid and formal place some people
photograph it.
We like to come to church, but VIZ
would not want to stay here to next Christ
mas. We liketo hear the Hallelujah Chorus
but we would not want to hear it all the
time for fifty centuries. It might be or
some great occasion it would be possibly
comfortable to wear crown of GOLD
weighing several pounds, but it would b.
an afiiictlon to wear such crown forever
In other words, we run the descriptions
of Heaven into the ground while we make
that which was intended as especial an6
celebrative to be the exclusive employment
OF the Heaven. You might as well, il
asked to describe the habits of American
society, describe a Decoration Day or {
Fourth of July, or an autumnal Thanksgiv
ing, rs though it were all the time thai
way.
am not going to speculate in regard tx
the future world, but must, by inevitable
laws of inference and deduction and com
mon sense, conclude that in Heaven we will
be just as different from each other as w,
are now different, and hence that Their,
will be at least as many different employ
mexts in the celestial world as there ar,
employments here. Christ is to be the grea
love, the great joy, the great rapture, tn,
great worship of Heaven; but will tina
abolish employment? No more than love
on earth-paternal, filial, fraternal, con
jugal love-abolish earthly occupation.
In the first place, remark that all thos
Of our departed Christian friends who o,
earth found great joy in the fine arts ar
now indulging their tastes in the same di
rection. On earth they had their gladdes
pleasures amid pictures and statuary, an,
in the study of the laws of light and shad
and perspective. Have you any idea tina
that affiueuce of faculty at death collapse,
h and persisted? Why SO, when there i
more for them to look at, and they hav
keener appreciation of the beautiful, ant
they stand amid the very looms where tn,
sunsets and the rainbows and the sprin,
mornings are woven?
Are you so obtuse as to suppose that be
cause the painter drops his easel and tn
sculptor his chisel and the engraver hi
knife, that, therefore, that taste, which b,
was cnlarging and intensifying for forty
or fifty years, is entirely obliterated!
These artists, or these friends of art, O,
earth worked in coarse material and will
imperfect brain and with frail hand. Nov
they have carried their art into larger
liberties and into wider circumference
They are at their old business yet, but
without the fatigues, without the limita-